TheQ

I suspect many of those stuck around the Lower Bure bouy had planned their route before hand and the 55 minute delay caught them out. Missing out the Ant and South Walsham on the way out they may have still made it in time. Also the forecast was for a steadily increasing wind, which didn't happen. Although the wind kept going, it went very light during darkness.

There are traffic lights and single lane working just the wroxham side of the cafe at Rackheath. looks like an inspection cover replacement. The final barriers around the buildings at the Ingham Swan corner have been removed.

I think this closes the thread, I've seen over the last few days a lady sorting out the roses and flowers around the house/s next door to the cremated Pheonix Ingham Swan. This morning the remaining barriers around the site were gone. The old shop used as an art gallery has piles of personal property in it. So I guess the owners are moving back in..

I thought that would make you sit up...

Yes the fastest boats that did Hickling first, did do well in the race, those not quite so quick on handicap or skill of the helm, did not then go on to reach the Lower Bure buoy in time, many gave up at that point. Although some moored up to wait for tide to change again and then finished.. Not just A raters and Punts did well doing Hickling first, the leading yeoman came our way and were 8th and 11th

The provisional results.. 2019 PROVISIONAL RESULTS.pdf

If your holiday includes the first week of August, keep an eye out for the thread I'll post on getting through Horning regatta. It will have the title "Navigating the northern rivers 3rd -9th August 2019" The regatta has up to 100 sail boats on the river at a time, from the Swan inn for 1.5 miles up river . So we do cause a lot of chaos to frighten the inexperienced. But it is easy to pass through safely if slow some times. If you put you dates of visit up I can post the dates of any other regattas on, that you may wish to watch / go through / avoid. There is more than one sailing event every single day of the school summer holidays.

Thanks for the pictures folks I failed on that aspect. So here's some words. My log of the night.. A few notes of the race as recorded at Hickling broad. As it turned out 108 boats had entered but 6 withdrew before the start. 10:30 Set up buoy and sat in rescue boat at Hickling broad buoy, closer to entrance than normal. Just near the end of the first island in Hickling Broad. 10:50 guardship arrives Janet 5 loaned by Martham boats, very nice it is too. 11:00 race starts 11:20 first 4 starts gone but some drifting back to start line, rest of starts postponed. Delay turns out to be 55 minutes.... 1 boat took an hour to cross the start line 13:20 Last start 13:43: first 5 boats at Ludham bridge check point. 13:45 A punt has a confidence crisis, persuaded to carry on at least till they’ve past the first check point. 14:00 very nice vegetable curry arrives from Hickling sailing club. 14:03 first boats at south walsham 14:05 DNS list 6 boats, 2 punts and 4 keelboats... 14:15 main fleets pouring round ludham buoy, Thames A rater retires torn mainsail last year’s winner!!! 14:20 first boats at Thurne mouth. Heading toward us.. 14:40 last start boats reach ludham . 15:00 first boats at Potter heigham bridge. 15:15 first boats at martham 15:37 first boats at hickling, A rater, some confusion two boat go past both of classes that are competing.. But they weren’t . 16:05 boat just leaving cockshoot broad 16::00 is boats coming through at more than 1 a minute. 16:38 punt retires too knackered to go on, it’s tacking all the way from thurne mouth to the lower bure buoy. 16:50 we’ve seen 1/3 of boats.. 17:00 it’s now gone quiet, the boats were taking 15 minutes to get here from martham, but 45 minutes to tack back. It appears that 1/3 of boats have chosen to fight the tide to get here, in the hope of doing a 3 tide race. The rest have gone to the lower bure buoy first which for them will be a 4 tide race. .17:00, 999 call to Acle , lady hit by dropping mast. Lady conscious glancing blow.. 17:00 punt lost its rudder, it been picked up by another boat, rescue boat try to catch up then going to tow punt. 17:54 wayfarer capsized, sorted themselves out, continuing in race. 18:06 another punt retired too knackered to carry on. 18:21, punt and rudder reunited, punt being towed back to base. 18:40, 26C we never saw it, it now getting very chilly especially as I’ve got to have the windward window open, to hear the competitors shout out their race numbers as they go past.. I’ve got my winter waterproofs on. 19:15 boats on their way back to Horning . 20:07 half the fleet seen. 20:22 Thames A rater Osprey ...first home they started at 12:55. 21:00 Star Class crew overboard at Acle bridge injured hand, lifejacket worked.. Bang.. Lent one to continue. 21:30 only 22 boats still running that we haven’t seen it looks like many of the boats that chose to do hickling have got caught by the tide at stokesby , quite a few retirements. 21:40 punt crew went for a swim at Acle, they are continuing. U 23:08 just 10 boats left to see 01:42 cramp.. Sat up with a start, glasses on top head hit underside of side deck, ex glasses.. Still boats retiring out there but they’re ones we’ve seen. 01:59 after 4 hours of light wind it’s definitely increasing maybe we’ll see some boats soon we’ve seen nothing since 23:54. 04:33 the sun is all but up. . Down to Six boats to see, because the others retired... No sails in sight. 07:20 they’re trying to persuade 4 of our boats not seen to retire, as they have no chance of finishing We can see one of the two that may finish. One of the slowest boats took 7 hours to reach Ludham from horning!!!!, I’ve done that in the past in one hour in a slowest handicap boat. 07:28 The second to last boat we’ll see just went past.. It has emblazoned on the sail... Sail fast. .. 07:46 Just one boat to see as all others have been here, or retired... 39 retirements this year, mostly from getting their choice of course wrong, against the tide. 08:02 our last boat... Time to go back to the club for breakfast 8:30 at hickling sailing club loading landrover 9:00 leave for Horning SC 11:30 landrover unloaded, breakfast had.. Time for bed and home.

Morning, went to the guard ship briefing last night, the club is surrounded by layers of boats, the car park was full. 08:00 I'll head to Hickling to get everything ready for the race, I have the buoy, radios , aerials, signs, lights, tally boards, and my instructions. Sadly the position I've been told to use is beyond Wi-Fi range of the club house. So no updates from me during the race. Though I'll try to get some pictures. But first, let the dog out, have breakfast, and the first of many coffees in the next 30 hours.

Get a proper broads sailing cruiser with a pop top, head room, sailing and you can easily get under all bridges..

If he dosn't get the top down, He'll need reverse at Potter.. we don't want him blocking the hole..

Hmm I don;t know whether I've done the list before but..IIRC. Learnt to drive in a Hillman avanger 5 speed, Failed my first test because the car they gave me for the test was 4 speed and I went for 5th.. Passed the second test OK but had to wait 6 months for it, the waiting list for tests was that long in Weston super mare at the time. First car Austin 1300 had it a year.. too much welding needed doing. Second Car, ford anglia van many miles in that, But I think it used as much oil as petrol, 3rd Ford Zodiac, good car but it went the way of many V4 engined ones, warped heads. 4th, Wolsely 1885, loved that car, again did many miles until a drunk driver pulled out in front of me at Lanark race course. 5th Mini Van I needed another car in a hurry, still, like all old type minis it handled well. 6th car, Triumph 1500 FWD many more miles, clutch went the Christmas eve, which left me with no food for christmas day as I was supposed to be driving home to Scotland that day. fixed the car OK. 7th Car Chrysler alpine 1300 fwd, took me all over the country, towed a Lysander 17ft sailing cruiser over a lot of it too..(outer hebridies to Norfolk!!!) 8th and 9th Cars triumph 2000s good cars but the towing of boats snapped the body shell between the back axles. 10th Bedford ambulance.. half converted to a motor home.. 11th yugo,, remember them? not very good had the same time as the bedford. 12th KIA Pride. very reliable 13th Landrover 110 still got that. 14th Kia Rio still got that, also very reliable. Just begining to think of a replacement for the Rio as it's now heading for 120,000miles from new..

The forecast for the start is now a southerly, 7mph gusting 10 mph, this would mean the unusual sight in this race of the boats tacking down ( long tack on the Horning side, short tack back to the trees,) from the Swan to the Ferry Inn. This may be a blessing as in the light winds they should at least keep moving. The Ant could be fun though, a run up to the turning point, but lots of short tacks on the way back. There will also be a lot of tacking down to the lower Bure bouy. But it will be a run / reach all the way back up to Hickling. There is of course the problem of a sea breeze, with the sun being hot enough, that could generate North Easterly breeze fighting the southerly then anything can happen, normally it might just stop the wind mid saturday afternoon.. Sunday now forecast around a 15mph southerly, once past Thurne mouth that will help the boats homeward...

if it's fixed down then it should be included in the length * width . if it's a folder then it doesn't, same applies to davits.. Interpretation 4 In these Byelaws, unless the context otherwise requires: “The Authority” means the Broads Authority. “Extreme Beam” means the full width of a vessel at its widest part and includes fixed fendering. “Length” means the full length of a vessel and includes any fixed fendering, bowsprit and any davits which are not retractable. “Pleasure Vessel” means any vessel used for sport or recreation whether hired or privately owned and includes a houseboat. “Vessel” includes a sailboard.

Water Rail and crew have the problem of counting them all out and counting them all back. Where as the crew and me up at Hickling only have the job of counting them round one mark. Also I suspect if we get the forecast light winds, I'll see a lot less boats getting as far as us..

Providing my new tablet computer doesn't commit sucide like last years, I should get the odd picture coming to this thread from Hickling Broad. I might be able to put in the odd report as to when boats start arriving at guardships, depending on how busy I get..

As mentioned, weather permitting 11:00 first start, there are around 100 entries so with about 10 boats in a start maybe 10 starts at 5 minute intervals. But there is normally an extra 15 minute gap in the middle to allow boats to clear. So the last start should be just after 12:00. The bad news is the temperature forecast is up to 26C and the windspeed down to 9 mph.. It could be another slow race...

That sounds like you crossed Connel Bridge, Originally a road rail bridge like Sutton. it was built for the now, long gone, Ballachulish branch line. crossed it once myself when Our ferry from Oban broke down and we had to drive up to Mallaig to catch another one..

The Boats have started arriving... They are now forecasting up to 22C, up to 13mph South Westerly at the start, moving round to southerly overnight 15 to 18mph for the last boats to finish. The more westerly the better for the start, to get them down the street..

The wind forecast has changed, it's back to a traditional south westerly 10mph with 22C forecast, suntan cream is required.. That direction makes it easy to sail up the ant to Ludham bridge if you can get to Ant mouth before the tide gets too bad against you. The cameras round the course on the HSC website are all on except Hickling sailing clubs. I'm sure that will be sorted soon.

The wind forecast has now changed to a South westerly about 10mph, if this is correct, the starting boats will go down the left hand bank into the motoring traffic through Horning, as that will be the only place there will be any wind. All we can do is to recommend that unless there is a totally free of boats area on the opposite side, stay on the right hand bank, slow to a near halt, let them go round you, then go forward till you find the next group of sailing boats and do it all again.

The show went well and we were extremely busy until the down pours occurred, it's always a surprise that the public won't go out to an indoor event if it's raining. It was nice to meet Vaughan, though as I was busy throughout the day, there wasn't much time to pull up a sandbag and tell stories. I did some carpentry and polystyrene carving /placing / gluing before the show opened, then cleared the snowstorm before the public arrived. So during the show I then plastered the new hillside, and did some general touching up of paintwork . Much interuppted by talking to the public. My spiel was mostly the history of the layout, then if they were interested, on into methods of baseboard and scenic construction. Some demonstrations of static grass application were carried out. This being the first time being displayed and transported in its current format , some damage occurred. So changes to the transport carriages will be needed, 20-20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. Tiree layout has / will have 3 modules fitted permanently to mobile carriages, that worked well, and three plug in modules clamped between. It was the supports the plug in modules that failed, and also three of six small ( 3 inches wide 3ft long) scenic inserts were damaged when they rolled over in transit, so some sort of holder is required.. The next couple of club evenings will be spent doing the required changes.. A picture of Tiree at the show. The right hand side as you look at it gained a hillside during the show.

Just a little hint of tomorrow's open day

An updated BBC report of the vandalisum https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-48348512 Just a note , some papers have been "emphasising" the maleness of railway Modelling. One of the clubs that had a layout destroyed was St Neots MRC, whose Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary and Exhibition Manager are..... All women.. We have several women in Broadland MRC.

I could do that on the base of the keel on my mini sailiing keelboat...